“He’s like a son, but I can’t talk to him”- Corriere.it

Samuel Eto’o he has never forgotten Inter. He was one of the heroes of the 2010 Treble and today he is the president of the Cameroon Federation and was the first guest of the Milan Football Week, the event scheduled at the Anteo Palazzo del Cinema until Sunday 14 May. And at Gazzetta dello Sport he touched on the Champions League as his first topic, given the victory in the first leg derby against Milan (2-0, 10 May): «When there’s a final up for grabs, it’s the most important challenge, while in general I place him second as a derby only behind Barcelona-Real Madrid because the championship is always played there. I’ve played eight of them and they’ve all been wonderful. Inter deservedly won the first leg, it was perfect and I hope that he will be able to repeat himself on his return ». Come on Lukaku, his former partner at Everton, the former striker added: «If he was there, I accepted being on the bench. He is very strong. He hasn’t yet fully expressed his potential, perhaps the return to Chelsea has held him back. He can be one of the best forwards in the world together with Giroud, Benzema and the others ».

There is now another Cameroonian at Inter. It’s about the goalkeeper Onana, who defines a “son”: «In 2017 for me he was one of the best five goalkeepers in the world. He won with Ajax, but with Cameroon he was on the bench. Some didn’t think he could start in a big team. And today he is one of the best in the world, even better than Maignan in footwork. I am the president of a federation, though. I’ve never seen Moratti tell Mourinho who should play and who shouldn’t. If the coach asks me to talk to Onana, then I talk to him. Otherwise no, because I can’t be a coach if I’m the president».

If Onana is a «son», then Massimo Moratti is the «father»: «Moratti was really like a father. We were a great team. There’s a backstory to my move. Materazzi wrote me a message asking me to come to Inter. I didn’t think such a thing was possible, that is, that an opposing player at that moment wrote to me to tell you “come to us, we will win everything”. So I asked Albertini if ​​that was really Marco’s number and it was. Usually we always talk about agents, with him the word was enough. Mourinho? I have had several teachers in my career. Capello taught me to shoot on goal, to defend the ball, to shoot hard. Then came Luis Aragones, another top coach, and Josè. We played with him as if we were one man. And he is the basis of life ».

Finally, Eto’o told a background of his career: “I was one step away from Manchester City. I made the decision about the plane. Mourinho called me seven times, but I was at word with Manchester. At that point I told my lawyer that I was going to play in Italy. He replied that it was a racist country. I wanted to see it for myself before judging. In any case, Italian society is not racist, at most there are three or four bullies who chant bloody shit. In the end I was happy to have chosen Italy, also because I won everything there was to win. The racism? It all started when I heard some crazy chants towards me. From then on I changed as a person, I take positions that others sometimes don’t understand because they don’t have my experience».